Partially thawed

[icygirl]

Just have a question for everybody here. When I was at the reptile show on Sunday I picked up a bag of 18 small rats for $20. The drive home took around 3 hours and it was quite warm out, so when I got home the rats were all partially thawed. They are not vacuum packed but the bag they're in is sealed. I stuck them in the freezer as soon as I could.

Are they safe to use? I am not worried about the $20 over the health of my snake. I just want to know if they are salvageable or not.

I know, I know, I should have brought a cooler, but I forgot.

[frankykeno]

One problem you may be facing since they started to thaw, then were refrozen in bulk is they may be sort of stuck together a bit. Personally I'd do a test. Remove one rat, heat it as you normally would for feeder use, give it the sniff test over a few moments to see if you can detect any whiff of the sweet smell of decomp. Let it cool, rewarm it again immediately, sniff it again (if you aren't sensitive to smells ask someone to help you do this).

If you can't smell anything nasty then I would think you'd be good to go. However, if there's any worry in your mind that these rats started to go off - toss them and call it a lesson learned.

[fishmommy]

my picnic cooler has carried far more frozen rodents home from shows than it ever carried human food to picnics